Apartments, shops planned for Rucker

EVERETT — A six-story building with 150 apartments and street-level stores could replace a used-car dealership within two years at the busy intersection of Pacific and Rucker avenues.

Lobsang Dargey, who bought downtown’s Everett Public Market building in 2006, is proposing the development after buying the strategic corner property.

He said it would help fill a demand for nice apartments in the downtown Everett area. While a number of new condominiums are planned, new apartments are in shorter supply.

“Professional people would love to live somewhere that’s affordable and has no commute to downtown,” Dargey said.

The project, called Potala Village, would replace Good Guys Car Store at 3030 Rucker Ave. The building’s footprint would require the city to vacate an alley on the property.

At this point, the development still is at the pre-application phase with the city’s planning department. Dargey just officially took over ownership of the property at the corner in September, buying it for $2.7 million, according to Snoho­mish County property records.

If the permit process goes as he hopes, however, Dargey said construction could begin next summer, with completion around fall of 2009.

The development’s units would range up to more than 1,000 square feet with one to two bedrooms. There would be more than 150 underground parking spaces.

The building also would include large shared decks with barbecues and other amenities.

Dargey’s plans also call for installing a fountain at the Rucker-Pacific corner and artwork along the sidewalks.

He said he’s been extensively researching the look of residential apartment buildings in places such as New York City’s up-and-coming districts; the hip Pearl District in Portland, Ore.; and Vancouver, B.C.

“It’s going to look really different, not like a big box,” Dargey said, noting that the Potala name refers to a famous palace in his native Tibet.

The ground floor would contain about 15,000 square feet of commercial space for shops and restaurants.

In Everett’s downtown plan, taller buildings are now allowed along Rucker Avenue. The city also has mentioned potential changes to slow down traffic on Rucker in the downtown core area and make it more pedestrian friendly.

In the meantime, Skotdal Real Estate has begun clearing property along Rucker Avenue at California Street for its Library Place development, which will consist of commercial space and 200 residential units.

Tom Hoban of Coast Real Estate Services — at the corner of Rucker and Hewitt avenues — is among those who have envisioned Rucker becoming a transformed thoroughfare. He’s optimistic from what he’s heard so far about Dargey’s project.

“The Rucker renaissance, as we’ve started to call it, begins at Rucker and Pacific and carries through to Rucker and Everett Avenue,” he said. “With this project, if it happens and is done well, as well as the Library Place development and things in between, we seem to have some momentum.”

Dargey has extensively remodeled parts of the Everett Public Market building into more office and commercial space and now has a waiting list of tenants. Since becoming a downtown property owner, he said, he’s become even more interested in Everett’s potential.